Art of making ornaments



UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

MARGARET I. \VALDRON, OF ST. JOSEPH, MISSOURI.

ART OF MAKING ORNAMENTS, &c., FROM HAIR, AND COMPOSITION FOR USE IN THESAME.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 449,750, dated April '7', 1891.

Application filed November 18, 1890.

To aZZ whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, MARGARET I. WALDRON, of St. Joseph, in the county of Buchanan and State of Missouri, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in the Art of Making Ornaments, &c.,from Hair, and in a Oomposition for Use in the Same; and I do hereby declare that the following is a full, clear, and exact description thereof, which will enable others skilled in the art to which it appertains to make and use the same.

My invention consists in a special compound or composition of matter for use in the manufacture of hair ornaments-such, for i nstance, as memorial and keepsake devices, souvenirs, jewelry, or other ornaments made from hair, or from the hair of departed friends; and it further consists in an improvement in the art of making or fabricating such articles, as will presently more fully appear.

Heretofore a paste made of gelatine has been employed and put on the surface of gold-beaters skin. Then the hair moistened with gelatine is laid on such skin and smoothed down as wellas the skin'will permit. The whole is then dried, and afterward, when wanted for use, it is out off in strips and out up into pieces or bits to represent leaves, parts of plants, buds, disc, in forming the required ornaments. One great objection to this present practice is that the gelatine is not strong enough in its adhesive properties to insure good lasting work. It does not with certainty hold the hairs down to place on the skinfoundation and cause them perfectly to cling thereto, and especially when a strip of the same is cut more or less of the hairs, especially at their ends, will fly up and separate more or less from the skin, and this necessarily causes imperfect work. Another objection to the existing process and to the use of gelatine is that the gold-beaters skin being always of the same shade or color affords but a single color for a background, whether the hair be black, brown, gray, auburn, or of light shades ;and still another objection is that after awhile the gelatine loses its adhesive power, and then the hair or the gold-beaters skin will curl up on the glass to which itis usually applied. To remedy these Serial No. 371,821. (No specimens.)

color of the same or nearly the same as the 4 hair, and this not only avoids the incongruity of a lack of harmony between the color of the foundation and the color of the hair, but it also allows of intensifying or lessening the shade of any given color in the hair product by the selection of an appropriate darker or lighter shade for the foundation.

The adhesive compound I have invented for this work as a substitute for gelatine I make substantially as follows: Fora first solution I take one (1) ounce of white glue and thirty (30) grains of shred isinglass, and macerate them in two (2) ounces of acetic acid, in a warm place, for, say twelve (12) hours, until dissolved. I then make another or second solution composed of one (1) pound of white glue put into (4) pints of Water and simmered for twenty-four (24) hours. Next I add or mix the above first-named and second-named solutions together and add to such mixture ten (10) drops of carbolic acid and five (5) drops of oilof roses. This compound thus made is ready for use in making hair leaves, and it is better to use in a warm state; but for use in making hair shrubbery, trees, grasses, &c., such completed composition may be mixed with water-say in the proportion of one part of the composition to three (3) parts of water, warm. water preferred; and I prefer to use the compound in a warm state. The carbolic acid serves as a disinfectant. The completed compound is very clear and transparent.

In using this new compound in hair-work I apply the hair in the manner stated above to the silk of such color as maybe suitable as a background in any given case, using this compound instead of the gelatine heretofore employed, and find the results to be not only greater facility and rapidity in doing the work, but more perfect work, and with no loose separating hairs rising up from the foundation silk, no curling up from the glass, like the gold-beaters skin is apt to do when making ornamental hair-Work, consisting in uniting together the hair and a strip or piece of silk or equivalent textile material by a composition consisting of white glue, shred isinglass, acetic acid, water, carbolic acid, and oil of roses, and cutting up the same, as desired, to be fabricated into the required ornaments.

MARGARET I. XVALDRON.

Witnesses:

M. I. HUMISTON, P. M. LANCASTER. 

